Leaders and Legacy: The rich history of those buried in Greenlawn Cemetery
In a nearly forgotten neighborhood along the banks of the White River in downtown Indianapolis lie buried gems of the past.
These jewels are the human remains of extraordinary leaders who lived extraordinary lives, including Indiana's first black landowner who was a woman, the great-great-grandfather of Muhammad Ali, the first black Grand Master Mason of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, a jazz musician, a physician, the man who inspired Harriett Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin, a Civil War hero*, barbers, and other significant leaders of the black community in the early and mid-1800s.
Many of those buried were born into slavery, then freed, and went on to achieve much success during their lives.
Greenlawn Cemetery opened in 1821 and closed for new burials in 1890 when the cemetery was full, according to city records. Many of the residents of Greenlawn Cemetery lived along Indiana Avenue, which served as a cradle of economic and social prosperity for African Americans from the late 1700s until the Indianapolis City Council demolished their affluent neighborhood to build a new highway, thanks to the passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1956 during the Eisenhower administration.
Indiana Avenue was not only a business center, but also an important arts and culture district. Today, the resting place of many of those who created the Indiana Avenue corridor is likely to be literally paved over for future development: the Henry Street Bridge project and a new project by the Keystone Group that includes a professional sports stadium for the Indy Eleven team.
The headline of an article in The Indianapolis News of February 24, 1923 reads, "CENTURY-OLD BURYING GROUND IS CLAIMED BY BOTH CITY AND STATE, City's first Cemetery, Founded by Act of Legislature in 1822, Now Lies in Midst of Factory District With the Graves of Many Pioneer Leaders Long Forgotten."
The first paragraph reads:
"Indianapolis' century-old 'old tomb,' which has been all but lost sight of in its current surroundings, is now in the spotlight: both the city and the state are claiming the site, which sits between Oliver Avenue and White River."
This article tells the story that with the influx of industry, the cemetery is no more. Marion County Surveyor Alexander Ralston (who would later be buried in Greenlawn Cemetery, see his name below along with Chaney Lively) drew up a site plan.
Pioneers such as Daniel Shaffer, Indianapolis' first merchant, was the first white man to die and be buried in Indianapolis. Mr. Shaffer sold "goods and groceries from his little house on the high ground south of Poges Run near Pennsylvania Street."
Daniel Nowland, another pioneer, was buried next to Mr. Shaffer. Nowland helped select the site for the state capital, and both of their burials are unmarked. An old document dated March 27, 1824, states that seventy citizens of Indianapolis signed it to establish a public burial ground known as Greenlawn, and among them is the signature of Calvin Fletcher.
By 1844, Greenlawn was rapidly filling up and was deemed inadequate. As a result, Crown Hill Cemetery was opened. Those who could afford to move their loved ones did so, leaving many of the graves of early settlers to be paved over by the Diamond Chain plant.
The last paragraph of the 1923 article reads:
"Although many graves are still uncovered by benches and attempts have been made to preserve a few headstones, the location of many graves of historical interest has been lost forever. Today, the site of an old burial ground is the heart of an industrial neighborhood with its attendant noise and unsightliness. It is hard to imagine a quiet place in 1821 outside the small settlement, in the woods by the river."
History seems to be repeating itself exactly 100 years later. Current city officials have stated that they would like to "make an example" of the Henry Street Bridge project. There is no consensus on how to proceed, and their supposed vision of what a positive "example" looks like has yet to materialize.
Eunice Trotter, director of the Black Heritage Program at Indiana Landmarks, began researching African-American burials at Greenlawn Cemetery with the help of one of her interns, Ahmod Carroll-Tubbs, who discovered Morris Greathouse's connection to Muhammad Ali. Carroll-Tubbs also retrieved the All Black burials from the Marion County Mortality Schedules, which historians and genealogists now use in their research.
Trotter enlisted the help of historian Leon Bates and put Bates on an advisory group that included members of the Marion County Historical Society, the Indiana Memory Coalition, the Indiana African American Genealogy Group (IAAGG), and Caroline Scott Harrison's DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution, whose sideline is genealogy) chapter. In essence, Trotter put together Avengers.
Earlier this year, Indiana Landmarks funded a GPR survey of a 20 x 20 meter section of Greenlawn Cemetery by Stantec, Inc. The report was released last month. The survey results contain more questions than answers, concluding that "the only way to definitively identify possible graves in the area is through a systematic mechanical autopsy with an archaeologist present to oversee the excavation."
A group of genealogists are currently working hard to identify and trace the lineage of those who were buried in Greenlawn Cemetery during the decade from 1871 to 1882. It is known that 1,300 colored people were buried in Greenlawn Cemetery during that time.
Among the genealogists that Trotter has attracted are Duane D. Perry, Andrea Price, Victor Stewart, Pam Griffin, Pamella Lomax, Marva Crews, Doris Fields and Denise Chisley. All are members of the IAAGG. IAAGG's motto is "Exploring our past, we preserve our heritage."
"Doing research is one of the most enjoyable things I do," shares Duane D. Perry, leader of a group of genealogists bringing these long-forgotten stories back to life. "I now know these people, and that's very important."
Much of the information about these historically significant lives mentioned below is taken directly from notes taken by Duane D. Perry and his team, with minor editing.
Leaders and legacy
The first black landowner in Indiana was a woman: Chaney Lively. She was born into slavery in 1795, but when she was "bought," most likely in Louisville, by a man named Alexander Ralston, a lifelong bachelor. He brought Chaney to Indianapolis in 1821 as a "domestic" laborer, by which time she was no longer in slavery.
Ralston was a surveyor employed by the city of Indianapolis. He worked on the Indianapolis survey until the summer of 1821, and when the plots with the plan were put up for sale, he bought two, one for himself and one for Cheney. She thus became the first black landowner in Indiana.
Chaney Lively's life has been extensively documented, more than any other black woman of this time. This is remarkable when you consider that she lived at a time when almost no black women appeared on censuses, being either the property of whites, their wage laborers, or the unnamed wives or daughters of free black men.
Cheney was a respected person, and in 1836 she married John G. Britton. Britton was a local barber and civic leader, and had a four-year-old daughter, Eliza Jane Britton, who is also buried in Greenlawn Cemetery. Britton participated in the Negro Convention movement, and in 1856 fellow black Masons elected him the first Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Indianapolis (1856-1859).
Prince Hall Lodge in Richmond is named the Britton Lodge in honor of John Britton. In Indianapolis, Britton was a member and trustee of the Second Baptist Church. The Brittons had no children together. Chaney Lively died in 1857 or 1858 of unknown causes. Britton married twice more and died in 1885 from complications from gangrene.
John Britton was 25 years old when his daughter Eliza Jane Britton (Gibbs) was born in Indiana in 1833. Chaney Lively became her stepmother three years later when Chaney was 33. She married Reuben Gibbs on March 27, 1851 in Marion, Indiana. Eliza J. Britton's mother is unknown, but she was raised by Chaney Lively while she was married to her father in his first marriage. Ida M. Britton, her sister, was born during her father's second marriage to Mary A. Daines.
Eliza later married Reuben Gibbs (March 27, 1851) in Indianapolis or Marion, Indiana. A year later (1852) they had a daughter Cora Lee Gibbs and then a son Marcus Gibbs in 1854.
A third child, named George Isaac Temple, was born on April 29, 1900, after Eliza's death. Eliza died on September 9, 1872, in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the age of 39 and was buried there. George Isaac Temple, a jazz musician who later worked as an advertising manager for the Indianapolis Recorder newspaper, was probably the last living descendant of Eliza Britton Gibbs in the Indianapolis area. Temple married Fredonia Stewart, daughter of Recorder founder George P. Stewart and later co-owner of the newspaper. George E. Temple died in 1996.
Morrison Greathouse was married to America Greathouse. He was born in Kentucky in 1838 and died of pneumonia in Indianapolis. He is the great-great-grandfather of Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). One of his sons was Archie Greathouse (1859-1936), who became one of the largest black property owners in Indianapolis. Archie owned many businesses along historic Indiana Avenue. Archie strongly opposed the construction of Crispus Attucks High School because he did not believe in school segregation.
Sarah (Sallie) Williams was born in North Carolina in 1770 and had one son, Isaac Williams, in 1812. She was 106 years old when she died on January 3, 1876, in Indianapolis. Sallie was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery. The book AUNT SALLY: THE CROSS, THE WAY OF FREEDOM was written about her life. Isaac was a well-known reverend who settled in Detroit. He was born into slavery and the book begins with Isaac, a young boy, being told the news that his mother has been sold to someone in Alabama.
Augustus Turner was born in 1806 in Kentucky to free parents. He moved to Indianapolis in 1833, where Augustus became a barber and achieved widespread fame and high esteem like no other African American in the state.
He lived most of his life in a log cabin which he built himself at the corner of Tennessee and 99 W. Georgia. His barber store was located where Merrill's Bookstore now stands. The First Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (later to become Bethel A.M.E. - African Methodist Episcopal) was organized in his home. He remained a faithful member of his church, and Augustus was also a charter member of the Grand Lodge of Colored Free Masons of Indiana.
Augustus had ten children with Tryphena Grafford Turner between 1835 and 1853. Five of their children died before the age of ten, two sons and three daughters survived. Augustus died March 29, 1880, in Indianapolis. He was 74 years of age.
Tryphena Grafford was born in 1810 in Henderson, Kentucky. She died suddenly, with no officially recorded medical cause, on December 9, 1873, at the age of approximately 62, and was buried in Greenlawn Cemetery. Augustus Turner's death is well chronicled in the newspapers, and people of all colors honor him and his legacy.
William W. Goff was born in Indiana in 1845. He enlisted on January 25, 1865 and was discharged on November 8, 1865 from the Calvary Battery Unit US Colored Troops Regiment 28. His remains were moved to Crown Hill Cemetery on March 7, 1900, along with his father Samuel Goff. The cause of William and Samuel's deaths was consumption. *The government paid for the transfer of military veterans to Crown Hill Cemetery.
Another resident of Greenlawn Cemetery is Tom Magruder, who lived to be 110 years old. There is substantial (circumstantial) evidence that Magruder's story inspired, at least in part, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1851.
Although Stowe recognized the influence of THE LIFE OF JOSIAH HENSON, FORMERLY A SLAVE, NOW AN INHABITANT OF CANADA, she was also moved by the stories of others and was likely familiar with Magruder, whose cabin was called Uncle Tom's Cabin at the northeast corner of Noble (now College Avenue) and Market streets.
Honoring the consecrated ground
Historian Leon Bates has thoroughly researched the history of Greenlawn Cemetery.
"If it were up to me, we'd plant grass seed and call it a day, but I'm realistic enough to realize that this area is not going to remain undeveloped. So if we're going to do it, let's relocate all the people left [at Greenlawn Cemetery] and build whatever you want on that land," says Bates, who is currently working on his doctorate in Pan-African studies. "Just relocate the people."
The African Burial Ground in Manhattan is perhaps the best example of how historically significant burial grounds should be treated. Federally funded construction projects must comply with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.
A "Phase 1A Cultural Resources Survey" was conducted prior to construction of the 34-story federal office building on Broadway. The archaeological excavation uncovered human skeletal remains 30 feet below street level. The burial dates to the early 17th century and contains the remains of enslaved Africans whose labor was used to build much of New York City's early skyline.
On a website dedicated to "African Burial Ground":
"The memorialization and research of the skeletal remains of enslaved Africans was the subject of lengthy negotiations between the General Services Administration, the African American descendant community, historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, and city and state political leaders. Civic involvement led to the reburial of ancestral remains at the site of their original discovery. To commemorate and honor the financial and physical contributions of enslaved Africans to colonial New York, an outdoor memorial, interpretive center, and research library were built."
There are numerous examples of the opposite approach across the country, where parking lots and office buildings are built on the site of black graves without much hesitation. How the city of Indianapolis and the Keystone Group will respond by honoring this sacred ground remains to be seen.
History and heritage preservation are very important.
As part of the funding needed to complete this project, Bates proposes that the bond include an amount for a thorough survey and archaeological dig. This would be the best scenario to honor the buried.
Bates found a grid map of Greenlawn Cemetery from the 1880s in the Library of Congress. In 1923, a law was passed giving Indianapolis full control of the original four acres on which Greenlawn was located.
Bones, coffin fragments and other remains have been found since 1924, so it's obvious that bodies remain underground. The cemetery could hold 800 to 1,200 people per acre. According to city records, the cemetery was overcrowded, which means between 3,600 and 4,800 people were buried there.
While conducting research at the Indiana State Library, Bates found evidence that the town hired a company to move 2,200 graves from Greenlawn Cemetery to Floral Park Cemetery. Of those 2,200, only 170 could be identified. This means that between 1,400 and 2,600 people at Greenlawn remain unaccounted for.
The least the city and the Keystone Group could do is mark the neighborhood with historical markers, posters and murals. This history needs to be shared. Paving over the sidewalk is certainly disrespectful, but it will not diminish their legacy, which will live on thanks to activists who care about their ancestors.